Kim Wonpil took in a deep breath of fresh air as he stepped out into the summer sun. As he stepped through the front gate of his home, he scanned the area for his best friend. He always waited for Wonpil every morning before school. When his eyes landed upon Sungjin, his eyes crinkled as a smile blossomed upon his face.

‘Sungjin,’ Wonpil called out, his pace quickening as he moved towards his closest friend.

Sungjin waved a hand as Wonpil moved towards him, making a grunting noise when Wonpil hit him at full speed and clung to him. Sungjin chuckled, shaking his head as he attempted to untangle himself from Wonpil’s familiar thin, but surprisingly strong, arms.

‘Wonpil. Let go, we’re gonna be late for school again,’ he said in a thick Busan accent.

‘But you smell nice,’ Wonpil mumbled a complaint while sniffing Sungjin’s shirt. ‘You smell just how I imagine summer would smell like.’

‘Don’t do this to anyone else; they’ll think you’re strange,’ Sungjin joked, poking Wonpil in the side.

The sudden jab caught Wonpil off-guard, causing him to loosen his grip on the other boy.

Sungjin took this as a chance to escape and ran off down the road towards school while laughing whole-heartedly.

Wonpil let a grin spread across his face again as he ran after Sungjin, the cool summer breeze hitting him in the face. It was refreshing; but not as refreshing as Sungjin’s scent first thing in the morning. It smelt like a mixture between pine trees and salt water lapping against the sand at the beach.

‘Hurry up Wonpil! I don’t wanna be stuck in detention hall again,’ Sungjin called out, already standing in front of the school gate.

Eventually reaching the school, standing in front of Sungjin, Wonpil tried to catch his breath. He felt light in the head after running from his front gate all the way to school.

‘Pil, are you okay?’ Sungjin asked, noticing his friend struggling.

‘I’m okay. I’m fine,’ Wonpil reassured, placing a hand on Sungjin’s shoulder.

Sungjin shook his head.

‘You don’t seem okay.’ Sungjin rummaged through his bag, pulling out a bottle of water. ‘Here, drink this.’

Wonpil took the bottle from his friend, quenching his thirst.

‘Do you feel any better? I can take you to the nurse’s office if you’re not.’

‘I’m okay, I just needed some water and a moment to catch my breath,’ Wonpil reassured, handing Sungjin’s bottle back.

Sungjin shook his head.

‘Keep the water; I know you never bring your own,’ Sungjin said, messing Wonpil’s hair.

‘Don’t do that.’ Wonpil whined, trying to bat away his best friend’s hand. ‘Do you know how long it took me to straighten that?’

‘I think I do know; that’s why we always run so late,’ Sungjin laughed, slinging his arm around Wonpil’s shoulder and leading them both towards their first period classroom.

As Wonpil happily doodled hearts on his notebook, using Sungjin’s pencils, he suddenly got the feeling that somebody was watching him.

Wonpil slowly looked up, noticing Sungjin looking straight at him with a goofy grin.

‘Looks like someone’s in love,’ he said, nudging Wonpil.

Wonpil blushed, looking anywhere but directly at his friend.

‘I never thought I’d see you like this; it’s cute,’ Sungjin chuckled. ‘Who’s the lucky girl?’

Wonpil let out a weird strangled noise; at the lead of his borrowed pencil snapped.

‘D-Do you have a pencil sharpener?’ he questioned frantically, digging around in Sungjin’s pencil case.

Sungjin shook his head, attempting to hold in his laughter.

Wonpil needed to get out of this situation. It was embarrassing, and awkward, and he didn’t like it. He stood up from his chair and escaped to another desk where Park Jaehyung, a transfer student from America, sat.

‘Sup,’ Jaehyung greeted, holding up a hand in greeting as he noticed Wonpil approaching his desk.

‘Hi umm..’ Wonpil started, still a little flustered from moments before. ‘Do you have a pencil sharpener?’

‘Sure thing,’ Jaehyung said, rummaging through his own pencil case. ‘Just make sure to bring it back after class.’

‘Here, catch,’ Jae tossed the sharpener up to Wonpil and Wonpil struggled to catch it.

‘Thank you. I’ll make sure to return it.’

Wonpil went back to his desk, starting to sharpen the pencil without looking up at Sungjin.

Wonpil only looked up when the Mr. Lee finally entered the room, clearing his throat and beginning to write math equations on the whiteboard.

A few seconds later Brian Kang walked into the room (as late as always), heading straight for the back of the classroom without giving the teacher a second glance.

‘Brian Kang, I’ll see you in the detention hall after school,’ Mr. Lee said without turning around from the whiteboard.

Brian ignored the teacher, taking his seat at the back and swinging his legs up onto the table.

‘That could’ve been us on detention if I didn’t make you hurry up back there,’ Sungjin whispered a little too loudly, and a little too closely to Wonpil’s face.

At first Wonpil jumped a little in surprise, almost forgetting that Sungjin was sitting right beside him, but then he relaxed as he felt Sungjin’s breath brush against his skin.

‘Park Sungjin, if you don’t stop chatting you’re going to meet me in the detention hall too,’ Mr. Lee groaned in annoyance.

‘My apologies sir,’ Sungjin said, scooting back over to his side of the desk.

Wonpil let out a breath of air that he didn’t realise he had been holding and went back to copying the equations from the board. He needed to make his feelings less obvious; he can’t allow anyone to see his true thoughts. He felt no need to show his feelings anyway. He was content with his life the way it was; as long as Sungjin was in it.

Once the bell for period one sounded throughout the school, Wonpil put his books in his bag and returned the sharpener to Jaehyung (he almost forgot).

‘Pil, do you mind if we go to the library for our free period? I gotta find some references for my history essay,’ Sungjin asked as they entered the hallway.

‘Yeah, I have a book I want to read in there anyway,’ Wonpil agreed, heading in the direction of the library.

‘What were you gonna read?’

‘Just some romance novel; you wouldn’t find it interesting.’

‘Ooh you really are crushing on someone, huh.’

Wonpil felt the blush start to appear again and he looked away.

‘Stop teasing me,’ he mumbled.

‘Hey, I’m sorry. I won’t bother you about it anymore,’ Sungjin promised, throwing a comforting arm over his friend’s shoulders. ‘You know I only like teasing you to see your reaction. It’s cute.’

Wonpil only blushed harder and wiggled out of Sungjin’s embrace, speed walking ahead of him and into the library.

He found a quiet spot in one of the aisles of books and sat on the ground, opening up the cheesy romance novel he had been wanting to read for a couple of days now.

As he started reading the first sentence, he felt another presence beside him. He looked up at Sungjin and smiled.

‘So that’s where you went,’ Sungjin shook his head. ‘I’ll just go find some books I can reference then I’ll be right back.’

Wonpil nodded, watching as Sungjin disappeared out of view into the history section.

He went back to his book. Once Wonpil finished the first page, he was already into the fantasy world. However, he was torn away from it when he heard somebody in the next aisle. He looked up to see his best friend; his vision was obscured by books but of course he knew it was Sungjin.

Wonpil tilted his head in confusion. Sungjin didn’t play any sports, so why was he looking at the books in the sports and health section?

‘What sort of books are you looking for? Can I help?’ Sungjin spoke, his voice filling up Wonpil’s ears.

Wonpil tried to catch a glimpse of who he was talking too, and when he did he could feel his heart drop. She was beautiful, and the way Sungjin was looking at her could only mean one thing.

‘I’m looking for books about basketball,’ she spoke, her voice was almost as pretty as her face and Wonpil hated it.

‘They are right over here,’ Sungjin said, gesturing to the row of books on the third shelf down.

‘Thank you so much,’ she said softly. ‘Do you like basketball?’

‘Do I like basketball? I play basketball,’ Sungjin bragged, telling a small lie.

‘That’s great. I might see you at basketball practice then. I’m going to watch with my friend,’ she said with a smile.

‘Y-Yeah, you’ll definitely see me there.’

‘Anyway, I apologise for having you help me out. I’m new here, so I’m not too familiar with everything yet.’

‘You don’t need to apologise. Maybe I could show you around?’

‘Oh no, that’s fine. My friend, that I used to attend junior high school in America with, is planning to show me around during lunch break.’

‘Is he Park Jaehyung by any chance?’ Sungjin guessed.

‘Yeah, that’s him! Do you know him?’

‘He’s in my class.’

‘I’m in the same class,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t go to first period because I had to sort out my enrolment, but I will see you in class after lunch.’

‘Oh, okay,’ Sungjin said, the brightest smile Wonpil had ever seen appeared on Sungjin’s face. ‘I’ll see you later’

‘My name is Lee Sowon by the way. What’s your’s?’

‘Park Sungjin.’

Wonpil tried not to cry when he saw the way Sungjin watched the gorgeous girl as she turned away to leave. It pained him that he could never be like that; Sungjin would never look at him the same way.

When Sungjin returned, taking a seat beside Wonpil, Wonpil looked back down at his book. He couldn’t read any of the words at the moment, but he needed something to distract himself.

‘Wonpil, we’re joining the basketball team.’